NewsWrap
for the week ending August 7, 2004
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #854, distributed 8-9-04)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and
Greg Gordon]
Reported this week by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman
As of this month, equal treatment is guaranteed to lesbigays by Portugal's
Constitution. With an amendment officially published in late July and
effective in August, Article 13 -- which ensures that "all citizens... are equal
before the law" -- now declares that, "No one shall be privileged or favored, or
discriminated against, or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty, by
reason of his or her... sexual orientation" or ten other characteristics. Only
a handful of nations in the world explicitly protect lesbigays from
discrimination in their constitutions, and Portugal is the first in Europe to do so.
The European Union's executive office is taking action against several
member states for failing to enact national anti-discrimination laws before a
deadline a year ago. The EU Directives adopted in 2000 require national
legislation against employment discrimination based on a half-dozen characteristics
including "sexual orientation," and broader protections from racial
discrimination. The European Commission is taking five countries to the European Court of
Justice: Luxembourg and Germany for failing to report changes to their laws,
and Austria, Finland and Greece for incomplete changes. The Commission also
sent a warning to Belgium. The countries will submit their responses in
September.
But a court's ruling for equality was no guarantee of safety for the group
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, GALZ. They won a High Court judgment last year
to allow them to display their literature at the Zimbabwe International Book
Fair -- but when they actually did that this week, they were driven from their
stall by a screaming mob. At least 3 GALZ members staffing the booth were
physically assaulted before they fled. It must've felt like deja vu -- when G
ALZ first exhibited at the Book Fair in 1995, a mob tore their stand apart. In
the years since then, the group saw a significant decrease in official
repression and growth in public understanding -- despite President Robert Mugabe's
continuing vocal homophobia. As this year's Book Fair opened, GALZ' presence
was publicly condemned by minister Obadiah Musindo, head of the Destiny of
Africa Network, as both immoral and an attack on Mugabe.
The man most responsible for Canada's new hate crimes protections for
lesbigays -- the nation's first openly gay Member of Parliament Svend Robinson --
this week pleaded guilty to theft. Under his conditional sentence, if he
continues psychiatric counseling, performs 100 hours of community service, and
passes a year's probation, he will not have a criminal record. He had already
written a letter of apology to the auction company which displayed the C$65,000
ring he pocketed in April. He soon turned himself and the ring in to police.
In a public statement at the time, he blamed stress for his "irrational"
action, and ended his 25-year career in national politics by taking medical leave
and withdrawing his candidacy for reelection. Throughout his career he was a
vocal advocate for equality, the environment and peace -- and a left-wing voice
for conscience. This week he told the court, "This has been a shattering
experience for me. I feel remorse and shame for a totally unthinkable action."
The judge accepted that the hard-working MP "ran himself ragged" and suffered
enough in "the avalanche of public ignominy". When Robinson committed the
theft, he'd been shopping for a ring for his partner Max Riveron.
Also in Canada, New Brunswick's provincial government announced this week
that it will be paying pension benefits to all the surviving unmarried partners
of its deceased civil servants, including same-gender partners. New
Brunswick's Human Resources Minister Rose-May Poirier said that the provincial
government is fixing a loophole that had excluded those survivors from several
pension plans established by legislation, including survivors of teachers and judges
among others. Non-legislative pension plans in the province already covered
its workers' unmarried partners.
But the Italian Government this week announced that it's taking legal
action against Tuscany's new domestic partners statute, which extends many legal
benefits of marriage to the region's cohabiting couples regardless of gender. A
Cabinet spokesperson said the legal recognition of "different forms of
cohabitation" is unconstitutional. Some right-wing politicians applauded the
Government action as a move against immorality, but some on the left said the
national leaders' action is inconsistent with their campaign promises to devolve
power to regional councils like Tuscany's. Ironically the coalition Government's
move comes just as a committee of the national parliament is about to review
five different bills to create legal registered partnerships -- and that's
five selected from thirteen such proposals submitted.
The continuing U.S. struggle over marriage equality for same-gender couples
moved to the state level this week, with a legal victory in Washington and an
electoral defeat in Missouri.
In Seattle, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled that
Washington's state law restricting legal marriage to heterosexual couples violates
the state constitution's guarantee of equal legal treatment. The case was
brought by Lambda Legal and the Northwest Women's Law Center on behalf of eight
same-gender couples desiring marriage licenses. Downing's decision described
the plaintiffs as "law-abiding, taxpaying model citizens" and declared that,
"The characteristics embodied by these plaintiffs are ones that our society
needs more of, not less. ... There is no worthwhile institution that they would
dishonor, much less destroy." But while Downing's ruling was entirely favorable
to same-gender marriage -- even stronger than a similar recent decision in
Oregon -- it's just the first round. His order to issue marriage licenses to
same-gender couples is stayed pending a ruling by the state's top court.
Given there's been so much criticism of "unelected activist judges," it's
worth mention that Downing's judicial post *is* an elected one -- and he's up for
reelection this year.
But ostensibly it's because of court rulings like his, which place
so-called Defense of Marriage laws like Washington's on shaky ground, that
conservatives are seeking to amend the U.S. constitution and the constitutions of its
individual states to restrict legal marriage to one man and one woman. The
federal version failed a procedural vote on the U.S. Senate floor, but this week
Missouri was the first of what could be more than a dozen states this year to
put a similar state constitutional amendment before its citizens. The result
was conclusive: the measure passed in every single county, with a landslide 70%
majority overall in unofficial results. Missouri becomes the fifth state to
constitutionally deny marriage to same-gender couples.
More individuals voted on the proposed amendment than any other issue or
office on the ballot, and the voter turnout of nearly 43% was the state's
highest for a primary election in at least a quarter-century and far above average.
That's significant because Democrats have accused Republicans of pushing the
issue solely to motivate their religious right base to go to the polls, with
the expectation that once there, they'd support the reelection of Republican
President George W. Bush. So many pundits are reading the Missouri turnout as a
hopeful sign for the President -- yet it's also been noted that the bulk of
those voters were Democrats.
Louisiana is expected to vote on a similar state constitutional amendment in
mid-September, unless a legal challenge stops it. At least eight and possibly
eleven or more states will consider their own constitutional amendments in
the November plebiscite.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard this week declared an entirely
different strategy -- he wants to see his Government's proposals against gay and
lesbian couples enacted before he calls the next federal election. He told the
religious right National Marriage Coalition's national forum in Canberra, "I
think it would be a great pity if this issue were left hanging in an election
campaign. If people who criticize me say, 'Oh well, it's just a political
diversion,' well, I would say to them... remove the diversion by putting the law
through before the election starts... everyone can say it's a united expression
of the national parliament and therefore the will of the Australian people."
What Howard's Government has tried twice already this year to ram through the
Parliament is a move to deny legal recognition to both marriages and adoptions
by same-gender couples, particularly those performed outside the country.
One version has been referred to a Senate committee for an inquiry process
including a legal review and an opportunity for public comment.
But this time Howard is splitting off the adoptions element, and the
largest Opposition party, the Australian Labor Party, is throwing its support behind
his marriage ban. The ALP's spokesperson on legal issues Nicola Roxon
followed Howard to the podium, noted the party supports hetero-exclusive marriage,
and told the crowd they could look forward to a vote within two weeks. In a
later press release, she promised that if her party takes the reins after the
election, they will thoroughly review and revise federal legislation to remove
discrimination against gay and lesbian couples, with the Marriage Act being the
sole exception.
To the outrage of other opposition parties and lesbigay activists, it now
appears that Howard's marriage ban will be reintroduced -- and passed -- by the
House in the coming week, circumventing the Senate inquiry process.
And finally... since its inception, reality television has brought
celebrity to a number of gays and lesbians. But the winner this week of Britain's
fifth edition of "Big Brother" and its 63,500-pounds prize was a transwoman,
Nadia Almada. Competitors were unaware of Almada's past life as Jorge, but the
audience knew -- and of the nearly six-and-a-half-million viewers who voted,
three out of four chose her over the runner-up, a male nude model.
Among the other contestants was an open lesbian who also identifies as
anarchist -- so it's hardly surprising that she was eliminated... for breaking rules.